The present invention relates to ramjets, and more particularly to split flow injector for a solid fuel ramjet.
Two important problem areas have been identified from studies of the fundamental operating characteristics of solid fuel ramjets (SFRJ):
1. Airflow uniformity requirements together with the weight, volume and pressure drop required for flow straighteners; and
2. Injector sizing requirements and the limits that are placed on fuel loading and performance.
Solid fuel ramjets require an injector step to create a recirculation region to sustain combustion. The size of the recirculation region may be defined in terms of the fuel port area to injector port area ratio, A.sub.p /A.sub.i. The area ratio limits fuel loading for reasonable pressure drops across the injector. Furthermore, even relatively small non-uniformities in the flow field can significantly increase the fuel port to injector port area ratio required to sustain combustion. Thus, some trade-off is required between lower fuel loading (reduced range) and the use of upstream flow straighteners to reduce the non-uniformities in the flow field.